This book addresses the history of interaction in the Aegean world during the third century BC. The main focus is the island of Delos and its important regional sanctuary. Through a thorough ...
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This book addresses the history of interaction in the Aegean world during the third century BC. The main focus is the island of Delos and its important regional sanctuary. Through a thorough investigation of the Delian epigraphic and material evidence, it explores how and to which degree the islands of the southern Aegean formed active networks of political, religious, and cultural interaction. The book aims to show that this kind of regional interaction in the southern Aegean resulted in the creation of a regional identity, which was expressed, among other things, in the existence of a federal union of the islands, the so-called Islanders’ League. It is structured along the lines of four case studies which explore different types of networks around Delos: the federal organization of islands (Islanders’ League), the participation of Delian and other agents in the processes of monumentalization of the Delian landscape, the network of honours, and the social dynamics of dedication through the record of dedicants in the Delian inventories.Less

Aegean Interactions : Delos and its Networks in the Third Century

Christy Constantakopoulou

Published in print: 2017-09-21

This book addresses the history of interaction in the Aegean world during the third century BC. The main focus is the island of Delos and its important regional sanctuary. Through a thorough investigation of the Delian epigraphic and material evidence, it explores how and to which degree the islands of the southern Aegean formed active networks of political, religious, and cultural interaction. The book aims to show that this kind of regional interaction in the southern Aegean resulted in the creation of a regional identity, which was expressed, among other things, in the existence of a federal union of the islands, the so-called Islanders’ League. It is structured along the lines of four case studies which explore different types of networks around Delos: the federal organization of islands (Islanders’ League), the participation of Delian and other agents in the processes of monumentalization of the Delian landscape, the network of honours, and the social dynamics of dedication through the record of dedicants in the Delian inventories.

The Alamanni were a Germanic people that figure prominently in the history of the later Empire. Despite their high profile, there has been surprisingly little written on them in English. This study ...
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The Alamanni were a Germanic people that figure prominently in the history of the later Empire. Despite their high profile, there has been surprisingly little written on them in English. This study aims to fill the gap. Drawing on the latest literary, historical, and archaeological research, it seeks to establish the origins of the Alamanni, the pattern and character of their settlement, the main features of their society, and the nature and significance of their relationship with Rome. It centres on the mid-4th century, recorded in detail by a variety of sources including Ammianus Marcellinus and the emperor Julian. It argues that, like the other western Germani encountered by Rome from the 1st century BC, the Alamanni were economically, socially, and politically far too weak to endanger the Empire. However, Roman rulers conjured up a ‘Germanic threat’, and exploited it for their own political ends. Rather than constantly imperilling the Empire's existence, the Alamanni became too closely linked to its fortunes. It was for this reason, in particular Roman restriction of their ability to unite under strong leaders, that unlike their long-standing neighbours the Burgundians and Franks, the Alamanni failed to establish a post-Roman successor kingdom in the 5th century.Less

The Alamanni and Rome 213-496 : (Caracalla to Clovis)

John F. Drinkwater

Published in print: 2007-01-25

The Alamanni were a Germanic people that figure prominently in the history of the later Empire. Despite their high profile, there has been surprisingly little written on them in English. This study aims to fill the gap. Drawing on the latest literary, historical, and archaeological research, it seeks to establish the origins of the Alamanni, the pattern and character of their settlement, the main features of their society, and the nature and significance of their relationship with Rome. It centres on the mid-4th century, recorded in detail by a variety of sources including Ammianus Marcellinus and the emperor Julian. It argues that, like the other western Germani encountered by Rome from the 1st century BC, the Alamanni were economically, socially, and politically far too weak to endanger the Empire. However, Roman rulers conjured up a ‘Germanic threat’, and exploited it for their own political ends. Rather than constantly imperilling the Empire's existence, the Alamanni became too closely linked to its fortunes. It was for this reason, in particular Roman restriction of their ability to unite under strong leaders, that unlike their long-standing neighbours the Burgundians and Franks, the Alamanni failed to establish a post-Roman successor kingdom in the 5th century.

The obscurity of Lycophron’s Alexandra was already notorious in antiquity and has long hampered a holistic approach to the poem. Through a series of distinct but closely integrated literary studies ...
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The obscurity of Lycophron’s Alexandra was already notorious in antiquity and has long hampered a holistic approach to the poem. Through a series of distinct but closely integrated literary studies of major aspects of the work, including its style, its engagement with the traditions of epic and tragedy, and its treatment of heroism and of the gods, the book explores the way the Alexandra reconfigures Greek mythology, particularly as presented in Homeric epic and Athenian tragedy, in order to cast the Romans and their restoration of Trojan glory as the ultimate telos of history. In this sense, the poem emerges as an important intermediary between Homeric epic and Latin poetry, particularly Vergil’s Aeneid. By rewriting specific features of the epic and tragic traditions, the Alexandra denies to Greek heroes the glory that was the traditional compensation for their suffering, while at the same time attributing to Cassandra’s Trojan family honors framed in the traditional language of Greek heroism. In this sense, the figure of Cassandra, a prophetess traditionally gifted with the power of foresight but denied credibility, self-reflexively serves as a vehicle for exploring the potentials and limitations of poetry.Less

The Alexandra of Lycophron : A Literary Study

Charles McNelisAlexander Sens

Published in print: 2016-04-01

The obscurity of Lycophron’s Alexandra was already notorious in antiquity and has long hampered a holistic approach to the poem. Through a series of distinct but closely integrated literary studies of major aspects of the work, including its style, its engagement with the traditions of epic and tragedy, and its treatment of heroism and of the gods, the book explores the way the Alexandra reconfigures Greek mythology, particularly as presented in Homeric epic and Athenian tragedy, in order to cast the Romans and their restoration of Trojan glory as the ultimate telos of history. In this sense, the poem emerges as an important intermediary between Homeric epic and Latin poetry, particularly Vergil’s Aeneid. By rewriting specific features of the epic and tragic traditions, the Alexandra denies to Greek heroes the glory that was the traditional compensation for their suffering, while at the same time attributing to Cassandra’s Trojan family honors framed in the traditional language of Greek heroism. In this sense, the figure of Cassandra, a prophetess traditionally gifted with the power of foresight but denied credibility, self-reflexively serves as a vehicle for exploring the potentials and limitations of poetry.

The book examines the various sources, distinctive forms, privileged recipients, and likely extent of almsgiving in the churches of the later empire. Almsgiving was crucial in the construction of the ...
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The book examines the various sources, distinctive forms, privileged recipients, and likely extent of almsgiving in the churches of the later empire. Almsgiving was crucial in the construction of the bishop's authority, but was also a cooperative task involving clerics and laity in which honour was shared and which exposed the bishop to criticism. Almsgiving by monks belongs in the context of self-dispossession and attracted further alms for distribution to the destitute, but proved controversial not least because of the potential for competition with bishops. Lay people were encouraged to give, at set times and in particular places, both through the Church's agency and directly to the poor. These practices gained meaning from the promotion of almsgiving in many forms, of which preaching was the most important. It involved redescription of the poor and the incorporation of almsgiving within the virtues of generosity and justice. So cast, Christian almsgiving differed from pagan almsgiving as an honourable benefaction typical of leadership. This distinctive pattern of thought and conduct existed alongside an older classical pattern of benefaction, and the interaction between them generated controversy over the conduct of bishops and consecrated virgins. The co-inherence of co-operation and competition in Christian almsgiving, together with the continued existence of traditional euergetism, meant, however, that Christian alms did not, as is sometimes thought, turn bishops into the megapatrons of their cities.Less

Almsgiving in the Later Roman Empire : Christian Promotion and Practice 313-450

Richard Finn OP

Published in print: 2006-02-23

The book examines the various sources, distinctive forms, privileged recipients, and likely extent of almsgiving in the churches of the later empire. Almsgiving was crucial in the construction of the bishop's authority, but was also a cooperative task involving clerics and laity in which honour was shared and which exposed the bishop to criticism. Almsgiving by monks belongs in the context of self-dispossession and attracted further alms for distribution to the destitute, but proved controversial not least because of the potential for competition with bishops. Lay people were encouraged to give, at set times and in particular places, both through the Church's agency and directly to the poor. These practices gained meaning from the promotion of almsgiving in many forms, of which preaching was the most important. It involved redescription of the poor and the incorporation of almsgiving within the virtues of generosity and justice. So cast, Christian almsgiving differed from pagan almsgiving as an honourable benefaction typical of leadership. This distinctive pattern of thought and conduct existed alongside an older classical pattern of benefaction, and the interaction between them generated controversy over the conduct of bishops and consecrated virgins. The co-inherence of co-operation and competition in Christian almsgiving, together with the continued existence of traditional euergetism, meant, however, that Christian alms did not, as is sometimes thought, turn bishops into the megapatrons of their cities.

The source and nature of earliest speech and civilization are puzzles which have intrigued people for many centuries. This study explores ancient Greek views on the source and nature of the world’s ...
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The source and nature of earliest speech and civilization are puzzles which have intrigued people for many centuries. This study explores ancient Greek views on the source and nature of the world’s first society and first language. Two of the book’s chapters are based on close readings of passages in Homer and Herodotus, while the remaining chapters are broader surveys of a variety of Greek literary texts. Topics covered include the nature of the language used both by men and animals in the idyllic golden age, accounts of humans' ascent to civilised life and their acquisition of language, and exotic creatures and peoples who have only limited linguistic capacities. Discussions of Enlightenment thinkers and modern theories of glottogenesis and language acquisition set Greek assumptions in a wider perspective.Less

Ancient Greek Ideas on Speech, Language, and Civilization

Deborah Levine Gera

Published in print: 2003-10-09

The source and nature of earliest speech and civilization are puzzles which have intrigued people for many centuries. This study explores ancient Greek views on the source and nature of the world’s first society and first language. Two of the book’s chapters are based on close readings of passages in Homer and Herodotus, while the remaining chapters are broader surveys of a variety of Greek literary texts. Topics covered include the nature of the language used both by men and animals in the idyllic golden age, accounts of humans' ascent to civilised life and their acquisition of language, and exotic creatures and peoples who have only limited linguistic capacities. Discussions of Enlightenment thinkers and modern theories of glottogenesis and language acquisition set Greek assumptions in a wider perspective.

This volume collects essays written by colleagues and friends as a tribute to Tony Woodman, Gildersleeve Professor of Latin at the University of Virginia. These essays, like Woodman's own work, cover ...
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This volume collects essays written by colleagues and friends as a tribute to Tony Woodman, Gildersleeve Professor of Latin at the University of Virginia. These essays, like Woodman's own work, cover topics in Latin poetry, oratory, and Greek and Roman historiography. Recurrent themes are the importance of rhetoric and rhetorical training, the skilful use of language and recurrent motifs in narrative, the use and adaptation of topoi, the importance of intertextuality, and the subtle and varied ways in which literary texts can have a contemporary resonance for their own day.Less

Ancient Historiography and its Contexts : Studies in Honour of A. J. Woodman

Published in print: 2010-04-27

This volume collects essays written by colleagues and friends as a tribute to Tony Woodman, Gildersleeve Professor of Latin at the University of Virginia. These essays, like Woodman's own work, cover topics in Latin poetry, oratory, and Greek and Roman historiography. Recurrent themes are the importance of rhetoric and rhetorical training, the skilful use of language and recurrent motifs in narrative, the use and adaptation of topoi, the importance of intertextuality, and the subtle and varied ways in which literary texts can have a contemporary resonance for their own day.

This volume analyses the importance of ancient Rome in the construction of post-classical homosexual identities. The book explores the contested history of responses to Roman homosexuality, in areas ...
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This volume analyses the importance of ancient Rome in the construction of post-classical homosexual identities. The book explores the contested history of responses to Roman homosexuality, in areas including literature, the visual arts, popular culture, scholarship, and pornography. Much has been written about the contribution of ancient Greek homosexuality to modern discourses of homosexuality, but this volume argues that Rome has been largely overlooked in this respect. It explores the demonization of Rome and the attempts to write it out of the history of homosexuality by early activists such as John Addington Symonds, who believed that decadent, licentious Rome had corrupted ideal (and idealized) ‘Greek love’. The volume also interrogates the identification with Rome by men and women who have sought an alternative ancestry for their desires. It asks what it means to look to Rome instead of Greece, theorizing the way in which Rome itself appropriates Greece, and the consequences of such appropriations and identifications, ancient and modern. It argues that Rome has been central to homosexual desires and experiences, and the discourse surrounding them, from early Christian responses to the sexual incontinence of the emperors, to learned discussions of lesbian cunnilingus in Renaissance commentaries on Martial and Juvenal, to the use of Rome by the early sexologists, to modern pornographic films that linger on the bodies of gladiators and slaves. By interrogating the desires that create engagements with the classical past, this volume illuminates both classical reception and the history of sexuality.Less

Ancient Rome and the Construction of Modern Homosexual Identities

Published in print: 2015-10-01

This volume analyses the importance of ancient Rome in the construction of post-classical homosexual identities. The book explores the contested history of responses to Roman homosexuality, in areas including literature, the visual arts, popular culture, scholarship, and pornography. Much has been written about the contribution of ancient Greek homosexuality to modern discourses of homosexuality, but this volume argues that Rome has been largely overlooked in this respect. It explores the demonization of Rome and the attempts to write it out of the history of homosexuality by early activists such as John Addington Symonds, who believed that decadent, licentious Rome had corrupted ideal (and idealized) ‘Greek love’. The volume also interrogates the identification with Rome by men and women who have sought an alternative ancestry for their desires. It asks what it means to look to Rome instead of Greece, theorizing the way in which Rome itself appropriates Greece, and the consequences of such appropriations and identifications, ancient and modern. It argues that Rome has been central to homosexual desires and experiences, and the discourse surrounding them, from early Christian responses to the sexual incontinence of the emperors, to learned discussions of lesbian cunnilingus in Renaissance commentaries on Martial and Juvenal, to the use of Rome by the early sexologists, to modern pornographic films that linger on the bodies of gladiators and slaves. By interrogating the desires that create engagements with the classical past, this volume illuminates both classical reception and the history of sexuality.

Originating in a conference held at the British Library in 2007 to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in British colonies, this book offers a study of the role played by ancient ...
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Originating in a conference held at the British Library in 2007 to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in British colonies, this book offers a study of the role played by ancient Greek and Roman sources and voices in the struggle to abolish slavery in Britain and North America. It contains thirteen chapters by an interdisciplinary team of specialists in literature, history, political thought, postcolonial studies, drama and classics from three continents, led by the Centre for the Reception of Greece and Rome at Royal Holloway University of London. Focussing on Britain, North America, the Caribbean, and South Africa from the late 17th century, the chapters, which are chronologically arranged, examine the arguments created by both critics and defenders of slavery, in media ranging from parliamentary speeches to historiography, nationalist polemic to poetry, fiction, drama, cinema, and the visual arts. In particular, they ask how, why and to what effect these often passionate as well as learned campaigners summoned the ghosts of the ancient Spartans, Homer, Aristotle, Aeschylus, Pliny, Spartacus, and Prometheus to participate in this most significant of debates.Less

Ancient Slavery and Abolition : From Hobbes to Hollywood

Published in print: 2011-07-01

Originating in a conference held at the British Library in 2007 to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in British colonies, this book offers a study of the role played by ancient Greek and Roman sources and voices in the struggle to abolish slavery in Britain and North America. It contains thirteen chapters by an interdisciplinary team of specialists in literature, history, political thought, postcolonial studies, drama and classics from three continents, led by the Centre for the Reception of Greece and Rome at Royal Holloway University of London. Focussing on Britain, North America, the Caribbean, and South Africa from the late 17th century, the chapters, which are chronologically arranged, examine the arguments created by both critics and defenders of slavery, in media ranging from parliamentary speeches to historiography, nationalist polemic to poetry, fiction, drama, cinema, and the visual arts. In particular, they ask how, why and to what effect these often passionate as well as learned campaigners summoned the ghosts of the ancient Spartans, Homer, Aristotle, Aeschylus, Pliny, Spartacus, and Prometheus to participate in this most significant of debates.

Next to older scholarly approaches to sacrifice, a new way of understanding the mechanism of animal sacrifice is presented in this book, based on the intersection of two axes: the one vertical ...
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Next to older scholarly approaches to sacrifice, a new way of understanding the mechanism of animal sacrifice is presented in this book, based on the intersection of two axes: the one vertical (linking humans to the deity), the other horizontal (that of reality). The horizontal axis consists of many sections, each one representing a particular realm of the offerer's reality. The book emphasizes the vigorous continuity of both Greek and Jewish animal sacrificial worship in the period studied. After presenting the sacrificial multiplicity characterizing Greek religion, the book stresses the sometimes obligatory character which the act of offering a sacrifice had in Greek communities, and so the importance of the objection to sacrifice. As regards to Judaism, the vigour of animal sacrifice in the Jerusalem Temple is stressed. Animal sacrifice was important even to the Diaspora, as an original study of Philo's sacrificial allegorisations proves. The Mishnah is used as a source for attitudes towards sacrifice before and after AD 70. The section dedicated to Christianity emphasizes the different backgrounds of early Christians (e.g., Jewish, Gentile). Evidence for anti-sacrificial attitudes is mainly attested in the 2nd-century Apologetics. However, the book finds anti-sacrificial hints in the earliest layers of Christianity. The book emphasizes on the use of sacrificial metaphors by Christians. Returning to the initial interpretive scheme, the book explains how metaphors transpose meanings from one section of the horizontal axis to the other, and thus help to dissociate sacrificial terms from animal sacrifice. Finally, attempting at answering the question of why Christians abolished animal sacrifice, the book traces the existence of an anti-sacrificial stream of thought emanating from the contact with Jesus.Less

Maria-Zoe Petropoulou

Published in print: 2008-03-06

Next to older scholarly approaches to sacrifice, a new way of understanding the mechanism of animal sacrifice is presented in this book, based on the intersection of two axes: the one vertical (linking humans to the deity), the other horizontal (that of reality). The horizontal axis consists of many sections, each one representing a particular realm of the offerer's reality. The book emphasizes the vigorous continuity of both Greek and Jewish animal sacrificial worship in the period studied. After presenting the sacrificial multiplicity characterizing Greek religion, the book stresses the sometimes obligatory character which the act of offering a sacrifice had in Greek communities, and so the importance of the objection to sacrifice. As regards to Judaism, the vigour of animal sacrifice in the Jerusalem Temple is stressed. Animal sacrifice was important even to the Diaspora, as an original study of Philo's sacrificial allegorisations proves. The Mishnah is used as a source for attitudes towards sacrifice before and after AD 70. The section dedicated to Christianity emphasizes the different backgrounds of early Christians (e.g., Jewish, Gentile). Evidence for anti-sacrificial attitudes is mainly attested in the 2nd-century Apologetics. However, the book finds anti-sacrificial hints in the earliest layers of Christianity. The book emphasizes on the use of sacrificial metaphors by Christians. Returning to the initial interpretive scheme, the book explains how metaphors transpose meanings from one section of the horizontal axis to the other, and thus help to dissociate sacrificial terms from animal sacrifice. Finally, attempting at answering the question of why Christians abolished animal sacrifice, the book traces the existence of an anti-sacrificial stream of thought emanating from the contact with Jesus.

The authorial persona constructed by Anna Komnene in her Alexiad (a history of her father the Byzantine Emperor, Alexios Komnenos, 1081–1118) responded to the challenges Byzantine culture created for ...
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The authorial persona constructed by Anna Komnene in her Alexiad (a history of her father the Byzantine Emperor, Alexios Komnenos, 1081–1118) responded to the challenges Byzantine culture created for female historical authorship. Fundamental cultural conceptions of masculinity, femininity, authority, deference, and morality within Byzantine society worked to make history writing an activity for men. Once the masculinity of history writing is understood, we can see how Anna endeavored to construct herself as both an authoritative historian and a meritorious woman. The first half of this book offers explanations of how various aspects of Anna’s self-presentation in the Alexiad work to convince her audience that she was capable of writing a reliable history, even though she was a woman, and that she was a morally virtuous woman, even though she wrote a history. These new interpretations of Anna’s authorial persona then spark a thorough re-thinking of the standard narrative that defines Anna’s life by the failure of her supposed political ambitions. The second half of this work reviews the medieval sources pertaining to the succession of John II Komnenos with fresh eyes and questions the foundations of the story that Anna disputed her brother’s rule. The story of Anna’s bloodthirsty ambition owed its creation less to medieval evidence than to eighteenth and nineteenth century scholars who did not perceive her efforts to appear modest and feminine in the Alexiad, but still considered female historical authorship to be problematic.Less

Anna Komnene : The Life and Work of a Medieval Historian

Leonora Neville

Published in print: 2016-10-27

The authorial persona constructed by Anna Komnene in her Alexiad (a history of her father the Byzantine Emperor, Alexios Komnenos, 1081–1118) responded to the challenges Byzantine culture created for female historical authorship. Fundamental cultural conceptions of masculinity, femininity, authority, deference, and morality within Byzantine society worked to make history writing an activity for men. Once the masculinity of history writing is understood, we can see how Anna endeavored to construct herself as both an authoritative historian and a meritorious woman. The first half of this book offers explanations of how various aspects of Anna’s self-presentation in the Alexiad work to convince her audience that she was capable of writing a reliable history, even though she was a woman, and that she was a morally virtuous woman, even though she wrote a history. These new interpretations of Anna’s authorial persona then spark a thorough re-thinking of the standard narrative that defines Anna’s life by the failure of her supposed political ambitions. The second half of this work reviews the medieval sources pertaining to the succession of John II Komnenos with fresh eyes and questions the foundations of the story that Anna disputed her brother’s rule. The story of Anna’s bloodthirsty ambition owed its creation less to medieval evidence than to eighteenth and nineteenth century scholars who did not perceive her efforts to appear modest and feminine in the Alexiad, but still considered female historical authorship to be problematic.

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